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Content Formatting for Confluence: Benefits & How to Get Started

Everything you need to know about Content Formatting for Confluence cloud

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Confluence has been one of the most popular collaboration and content management tools in the market for the last decade or so. It is used by teams to create, manage and share content mainly in the form of Confluence pages. However, teams often need more advanced ones to further organize and customize their Confluence pages. To satisfy the growing demand for content formatting for confluence, many apps have been introduced to Atlassian Marketplace.

The sole purpose of such apps is to provide a large suite of macros to help teams better work with Confluence. 

Content Formatting is one of Vectors’ earliest and most popular apps for Confluence. Over the years, the app has significantly grown to include more macros and advanced features on all three hosting options: Cloud, Data Center and Server.

In today’s blog post, we are going to focus on the advancements made on the cloud version. But first, we will walk through the main benefits of Content Formatting for Confluence along with key use cases. 

What is Content Formatting for Confluence?

Content Formatting for Confluence is a suite of macros designed to help you create, manage, and organize content within your Confluence pages. The app includes a host of macros and deals with a variety of use cases such as documentation, collaboration, and so on.

Who is it for?

Content Formatting for Confluence can be used by pretty much anyone with editing rights inside Confluence.

As mentioned earlier, one of the app’s common use cases is documentation. Technical writers, for example, use the app to structure and manage documentations inside Confluence. With macros such as navigation groups, tabs and expanders ,a technical writer can group information within content blocks. This makes it easier for readers to access key information without having to scroll the entire Confluence page.

The app is also heavily used by internal communications specialists. Here, the focus is put on beautiful design and easy content consumption. For example, an internal communications specialist can use macros such as buttons, panels and expanders to share and highlight key information within customizable Confluence pages.

Why Content Formatting for Confluence?

Organize and structure content 

We have all been there. You access a Confluence page looking for information, only to end up lost in a poorly designed and confusing page. With no layout or structure, Confluence pages are simply static blocks of texts that don’t look easy on the eye, and simply don’t invite you to dive deeper.

Expanders for Confluence Cloud

With macros such as Tabs and Navigation, you can easily create, organize and structure your content within customizable macros. This helps readers easily navigate content and quickly access what they are looking for.

Facilitate Navigation and Contextualize Content

A well organized and structured content is the first step to engage readers. To build on this and further facilitate navigation, it is important to make the pages dynamic and rich in content.

For example, upon accessing a Confluence page, there are usually terms that need further explanation. For this, you can use the footnotes macro to cite references and help readers easily access additional information. Furthermore, the Infobulle (or Tooltip) provides more context to specific terms and sections within a page. Last but not least, the panels macro – heavily used in documentations – helps you create and include customizable messages within Confluence pages.

Footnotes for Confluence Cloud

– Foster Collaboration through Detailed Processes and Page Statutes

Confluence is all about collaboration and real-time document editing. If multiple users are working on the same Confluence page, then it is important to keep everyone on the same track.

With the progress bar macro, you can create detailed processes with custom steps and track their progress. For example, this blog article passed through three steps inside Confluence: To do, In Progress, Review and Published. The team defined the steps, and upon accessing the Confluence page, all involved parties can see the progress of the page.

Progress Bar for Confluence Cloud

Additionally, the page status macro allows you to associate Confluence pages with a specific status and a certain percentage. Editors can leave a message further explaining the page status. For example, at a certain point, this article had Review status. To further explain the status, I have added a note to the product manager asking him for a quick review.  This is a great way for teams to organize, visualize and navigate their processes. 

The latest release of Content Formatting for Confluence cloud

📣 Latest release of Content Formatting for Confluence Cloud is now available on Atlassian marketplace.

With Content Formatting for Confluence, you already have a large array of macros designed to help you enhance the look and feel of your Confluence pages, facilitate navigation and access to information. However, the app on cloud lacked some macros that are already available on Data Center and server. This constituted a hurdle for our clients looking to migrate to cloud.

For this new release, we have placed the emphasis on feature parity through the addition of four macros: Panels, footnotes, Percentage progress bars and Buttons. It is now possible for both Server and Data Center customers to migrate the four macros mentioned above to their cloud instances.

Not only that, but we have also reworked a host of existing macros such as tabs, navigation groups, and page status in terms of UX and UI. This redesign makes the macros more visually appealing and easier for users to create, customize, and manage.

👉 To learn more about the new macros, make sure to visit the documentation.